This presentation looks at questions surrounding how to best sell agile in your organization. Presented by Michele Sliger.

1. Selling Agile
Michele Sliger
michele@sligerconsulting.com

2. Michele Sliger
Sliger Consulting, Inc.
www.sligerconsulting.com
 Over 20 years of software development
experience, with the last 8 in Agile
 Certified Scrum Trainer
 BS-MIS, MBA, PMP
 Co-author along with Stacia Broderick of:
Preview chapters from The Software Project
Manager’s Bridge to Agility at:
www.informit.com/title/0321502752
www.amazon.com
2© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

3. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 3
What We’ll Cover
• What do we mean by “selling agile”?
• To pitch or not to pitch
• Selling agile to management
• Selling agile to the business
• Selling agile to the team
• Selling by not selling: alternative techniques
• Time for your questions – let’s play Stump the
Presenter!

4. Let’s Define “Selling”
• First answering “why agile?”
• Learning what people are interested in
• Exploring alternatives to a current problem
or issue
• Ultimately answering the question “what’s
in it for me?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 4

5. VersionOne’s 2008 Survey
Agile development is delivering
meaningful and measurable
business results. Respondents
reporting specific improvements
greater than 10% include:
* Increased Productivity – 89% of
respondents
* Reduced Software Defects –
84% of respondents
* Accelerated Time-to-Market –
83% of respondents
* Reduced Cost – 65% of
respondents
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 5

6. Amazing Results!
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 6
Industry Average Folle2 (using XP) ∆
Project Cost 3.5 million 2.2 million ‐1.3 million
Schedule 12.6 months 7.8 months ‐4.8 months
Cumula?ve Defects 2890 1450 ‐50%
Staffing 35 35 (co‐located) n/a
Industry Average BMC (using Scrum) ∆
Project Cost 5.5 million 5.2 million ‐.3 million
Schedule 15 months 6.3 months ‐8.7 months
Defects During QA 713 635 ‐11%
Staffing 40 93 (distributed) +52
BMC: a larger than average team with faster than average builds and average bug rates.
Studies show an increase in bugs when using offshore development: there is a 280% increase
from Industry Average to Offshore Average in a standard waterfall environment. Therefore BMC’s
success and average bug count while using offshore teams is quite remarkable.
Source: Michael Mah for the Cutter Consortium and QMS
Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies (webinar)
11 – Mgmt support
33 – Developers
37 – QA
2 – Integration
3 – I18N
2 – Build team
5 – Other
18 – Engineers
6 – Testers
1 – Writer
2 – Program Leads
1 – Customer Proxy
7 – added later in
the project

7. Let’s Define “Selling”
• First answering “why agile?”
• Learning what people are interested in
• Exploring alternatives to a current problem
or issue
• Ultimately answering the question “what’s
in it for me?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 7

8. “Selling”?
“Are we selling or building trust?” – Hubert
Smits
“I really don't "sell" anything, and don't even
think that I can do so very well. What I can
do, on my best days, is to listen to what
someone wants, what they are having
trouble with, and suggest a specific thing to
do to make that part of their life better.” –
Ron Jeffries
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 8

9. Let’s Define “Selling”
• First answering “why agile?”
• Learning what people are interested in
• Exploring alternatives to a current problem
or issue
• Ultimately answering the question “what’s
in it for me?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 9

10. Do we really want to make a
sales pitch?
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 10

11. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 11
Hurdling Resistance
• From Management:
– Avoid it - fly under the radar
– Advocate using their language
– Share success stories
• From the Business:
– Get them involved early!
– Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back
– Got proxy?
– Start with the technical practices
• From the team:
– Get the right people on the bus (Jim Collins “Good to Great”)
AND the wrong people off the bus
– Empower them and give them a guide

12. Selling to Management

13. “Things are fine, why do we
need to change?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 13
• Maybe everything
really is fine
• What’s the real
problem?
• Can you help?

14. “Our situation is just too
complicated for agile!”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 14
• FDA? - check
• DOD? - check
• SOX? - check
• Banking? - check
• CMM? - check
• Google “companies using
scrum”
• Ask/search online forums

15. “Agile doesn’t allow for long-term
planning—how are we supposed to
determine budgets?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 15
Daily
Plan
Iteration Plan
Product Roadmap
ReleasePlan
Product Vision *Annually by the Product Owner
*Twice yearly by the Product Owner
*Quarterly by the Product Owner and Teams
Bi-weekly by the Teams
Daily by the Team Members
*These timeframes are guidelines, not rules
Mike Cohn’s “Planning Onion”

16. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 16
And there are more onions…
Portfolio Planning
Corporate Strategic Objectives

17. Budgets are built top-down
• By time:
– Number of iterations times the loaded salaries
of the team members, plus other expenses
• By feature set:
– Estimate the backlog using points
– Determine dollar amount per point using
average team velocity and loaded salaries
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 17

18. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 18
“Where’s my WBS?”
Release Plan Iteration Plan

19. “Where’s my Gantt chart?”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 19
Graphic © Mountain Goat Software, All rights reserved

20. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 20
Burndown Charts
Iteration/Time
Estimated
Scope

21. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 21
Alternatives to Gantt

22. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 22
Dashboard widgets

23. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 23
A Virtual Task Board

24. “We need to matrix our resources
to get maximum efficiency”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 24
Source:
Gerald Weinberg
Quality Software
Management
Volume 1:
Systems
Thinking
Graphic courtesy of Agile Evolution, Inc.

25. “Our people can’t be trusted to
self-organize”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 25
• This is a bigger
issue than simply
choosing a new
way to develop
software
• Flee!

26. Selling to the Business

27. “We don’t have time to work with the
teams every single day”
• Remember: they’re time-sliced too
• If you don’t have the time, then who does?
• What is the cost of NOT working with the team?
• Explore alternatives like “office hours”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 27

28. “I can’t wait an entire iteration for that
feature!” or “I can’t wait an entire iteration
before I get to change my mind!”
• Why not?
• You don’t have to
• Is the iteration too
long?
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 28

29. “I have to talk to the engineers? I
don’t know how to talk to
engineers!”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 29
• Help with
introductions
• Eat and drink
together

30. “But we want a fixed price
contract”
Try asking these questions:
• Do you often find that your requirements change mid-stream, even
after everything has been captured and analyzed?
• Would you like to be able to change your mind every two weeks
about the features you’ve requested?
• Would you be willing to spend some time with us to help us better
understand what your vision is for the implementation of these new
features?
• How often have you seen working software in the past, and how
often would you like to see working software on this project? Would
you like us to show you what we’ve accomplished by demo’ing the
product to you every two weeks?
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 30

31. “But we want a fixed price
contract”
• How should we mitigate against time constraints? Or against
potentially building the wrong thing? –Do you have a prioritized list
of work that could help us with this?
• People typically role on and off projects, which can cause delays as
information needs to be transferred and absorbed (and can
sometimes be lost). How would you like us to handle this?
• Would you like the right to close or cancel the project at any time
with only 30 days’ notice?
And if all that doesn’t work, then try:
• Let’s spend $5k and build a backlog of work that we can estimate,
and confirm if we can do it based on a fixed price
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 31

32. “But we want a fixed price
contract”
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 32
• Check out Jeff Sutherland’s “Money for
Nothing and Change for Free”
http://agile2008toronto.pbwiki.com/Agile2008+Sessions
– Start with a fixed price and include TM for changes
– Insert a “Change for Free” option: working with the team every
iteration allows the customer to make changes for “free”
– Insert a “Money for Nothing” option: Customer may terminate
contract early if value has been satisfied for 20% of remaining
unbilled contract value

33. Selling to the Team

34. “There are too many meetings!”
• In your current process, how do you know what to
work on?
– And how is that working out for you and your
customers?
• How much time would you normally spend on
planning a quarterly release?
– 4 hours x 6 two-week sprints = 24 hours
• How much time would you normally spend on your
weekly status meetings?
– 4 days x 15 minutes = 60 minutes
• What are these other meetings you’re going to and
what do you get out of them?
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 34

35. “If we don’t do any detailed
planning, our architecture will fail!”
• Do prepare a high-level architectural vision/plan
– Don’t load it up with detail
– Don’t try to implement it all at once
• Build an architecture runway
– This is part of the cake slice; just build out 1-2
iterations ahead
• 60% of software features are rarely or never used
– Don’t build something to support a 60%-er
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 35

36. “We aren’t co-located so we
can’t be agile”
• It will be more work to ensure that communications
are working properly, but it can be done
• “the most efficient and effective means of
communication is via face-to-face”… true enough,
so we’ll be a bit less efficient, and sometimes less
effective
• You’ll need tools, lots and lots of tools
• You’ll need more documentation
• You’ll need to be watchful of how easy it is to slip
back into old waterfall-type habits
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 36

37. The Unspoken Reasons
• I’m afraid of change
• I’m afraid I will have nothing to do
• I’m afraid I will lose my job
• I’m afraid people will see how little I actually do
• I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up
• I’m afraid I won’t be able to learn the new software
• I’m afraid this will mean hard work
• I’m afraid I’ll be fired if the decisions we make don’t work out
• I’m afraid I won’t get raises or promotions anymore
• I’m afraid of conflict and trying to reach consensus
• Nuts! there go my 3-hour lunches
• Nuts! that means I can’t mosey in at 10:30 anymore
• Nuts! that means I’ll have to really think now
• Nuts! that means I’ll actually have to talk to people now
• It’s just so much easier and safer when someone else tells me exactly what to do
• It’s just so much easier and safer when I can tell them exactly what I want them to do
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 37

38. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 38
“How do we work with non-agile parts
of the organization?”
Iteration 1
Release
Iteration 3Iteration 2 Iteration 4
Backlog
• Project Approval
• Feature 1
• Feature 2
• Arch. Approval
• Feature 3…
• Project
Approval
• Feature 1
• Feature 2
• Arch.
Approval
• Feature 3
• Feature 4
• Feature 5
• Feature 6
• Feature 7
Project
Approval
Process
To
Customer
Using
“Barely
Sufficient”
Guidelines
Provisional Approval

39. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 39
“How do we work with non-agile parts
of the organization?”

40. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 40
“How do we work with non-agile parts
of the organization?”

41. Beyond the sales pitch….
• Be an example
• Socialize, don’t evangelize
• Host brown-bag lunches
• Invite others to join you at local chapter
meetings
• Get an outside consultant to do the job
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 41

42. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 42
Additional Resources
• www.apln.org
• www.agilealliance.org
• www.scrumalliance.org
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/
• http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/
agileprojectmanagement/

43. © 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 43
Additional Resources
• “Stretching Agile to Fit CMMI Level 3,” an experience report by David J.
Anderson:
http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Papers/StretchingAgiletoFitCMMIL.html
• “5 Levels of Agile Planning: From Enterprise Product Vision to Team Stand-up,” a
white paper by Hubert Smits:
http://library.theserverside.com/detail/RES/1169212374_955.html
Books:
• Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
• Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell
• Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn
Sites and Search terms:
• InfoQ
• STSC Crosstalk
• Jeff Sutherland
• Israel Gat
• Mary Poppendieck

44. Let’s play Stump the Presenter!

45. Thank you!
www.sligerconsulting.com
michele@sligerconsulting.com
You may claim 1 PDU under
“Category 4 – Other Providers”
www.pmi.org

46. Agile Adoption Statistics
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 46

47. More Statistics
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 47
CNN cites
Agile as #18 in
people,
products,
trends and
ideas that are
transforming
the world of
business.
CNN, The 50 Who
Matter Now
money.cnn.com
Davidfrico.com

48. Amazing Results!
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 48
Industry Average Folle2 (using XP) ∆
Project Cost 3.5 million 2.2 million ‐1.3 million
Schedule 12.6 months 7.8 months ‐4.8 months
Cumula?ve Defects 2890 1450 ‐50%
Staffing 35 35 (co‐located) n/a
Industry Average BMC (using Scrum) ∆
Project Cost 5.5 million 5.2 million ‐.3 million
Schedule 15 months 6.3 months ‐8.7 months
Defects During QA 713 635 ‐11%
Staffing 40 93 (distributed) +52
BMC: a larger than average team with faster than average builds and average bug rates.
Studies show an increase in bugs when using offshore development: there is a 280% increase
from Industry Average to Offshore Average in a standard waterfall environment. Therefore BMC’s
success and average bug count while using offshore teams is quite remarkable.
Source: Michael Mah for the Cutter Consortium and QMS
Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies (webinar)
11 – Mgmt support
33 – Developers
37 – QA
2 – Integration
3 – I18N
2 – Build team
5 – Other
18 – Engineers
6 – Testers
1 – Writer
2 – Program Leads
1 – Customer Proxy
7 – added later in
the project

49. VersionOne’s 2008 Survey
Agile development is delivering
meaningful and measurable
business results. Respondents
reporting specific improvements
greater than 10% include:
* Increased Productivity – 89% of
respondents
* Reduced Software Defects –
84% of respondents
* Accelerated Time-to-Market –
83% of respondents
* Reduced Cost – 65% of
respondents
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 49

50. VersionOne’s 2008 Survey
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 50

51. VersionOne’s 2008 Survey
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 51

52. VersionOne’s 2008 Survey
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 52